10: James Thurber." Nantucket MA 02554. He was elected to the Lampoon's board of directors in his third year. [54], This was followed in 1936 by How to be a Detective. Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile, Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile. The New Yorker published an average of forty-eight Benchley columns per year during the early 1930s. It was the perfect time New York Times, January 25, 2004. ISBN 0151975213). The Algonquin Round Table was a group of New York City writers and actors who met regularly between 1919 and 1929 at the Algonquin Hotel. Literary 'Sconset, the Benchleys, and John Steinbeck, Robert C. Benchley Biography, Photos and Works, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Benchley&oldid=1148971771, Male actors from Worcester, Massachusetts, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 9 April 2023, at 10:45. [85] In 1944, Benchley starred as Mitty in an adaptation of the story for the radio anthology series, This Is My Best. . Benchley was cast in minor roles for various romantic comedies, some shoots going better than others. Their first Respectfully submitted, /s/ Sharon Lyon (Mrs.) BOSTON, September 15, 2003 -- Boston RBS Chapter Celebrates Benchley's Birthday. After brief stints at The New York Tribune and Vanity Fair, where he began taking long lunches at the Algonquin with his colleagues Dorothy Parker and Robert Sherwood, Benchley became a full-time theater critic for Life magazine and, in 1929, for The New Yorker. Robert's older brother, Edmund, was rushed to the Spanish-American War days after graduation from West Point (1898), and was a casualty almost immediately. ultimately used: "This is all above my head.". A reprise of "The Treasurer's Report" was often requested for future events, and Irving Berlin (who had been musical director for No Sirree!) In this capacity Paramount cast him in the 1945 Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy Road to Utopia: Benchley interrupts the action periodically to "explain" the nonsensical storyline. The Music Box Revue opened in September 1921 and ran until September 1922, with Benchley appearing in his eleven-minute turn eight times a week (evening performances on Monday through Saturday and matinees on Wednesday and Saturday). This worried Sherwood, as he felt it could jeopardize his forthcoming raise. Benchley's humor was molded during his time at Harvard. [19] The first issue was roundly criticized by management, who felt it was "too technical, too scattering, and wholly lacking in punch. Benchley's humor inspired a number of later humorists and filmmakers. The act made him a campus celebrity -- and remained in In 1931, he was persuaded to do voice work for RKO Radio Pictures for a film that would eventually be titled Sky Devils, and he acted in his first feature film, The Sport Parade (1932) with Joel McCrea. Visual Arts Center 24 Amelia Drive Telephone: 508 228 0722 Fax: 508 228 9700 Cecelia Joyce & Seward Johnson Gallery 19 Washington Street Telephone: 508 228 0294 Fax: 508 228 9700 Big Gallery [48] He continued meeting with his friends at the Algonquin, and the group became popularly known as the Algonquin Round Table. He has been treated for hernia at Ashford General Hospital, ing wartime, 26,000 lives and 22,000 plantsmore than the combat toll exacted by Germans and Japanese. He was a very poor one, unable to get statements from people quoted in other papers, and eventually had greater success covering lectures around the city. Source notes would have helped here, at the very least by giving readers some guidance in figuring out where Mr. Altman got his stories -- and how reliable they might be. (There is no evidence to support speculation that Lillian had an inappropriate relationship with Robert.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Benchley. The liberty gave his work new life, and the success of his pieces in the magazine convinced his editors to give him a signed byline column in the Tribune proper. founded it. [72] Even the longer, plot-driven shorts, such as Lesson Number One, Furnace Trouble, and Stewed, Fried and Boiled, show a Benchley character overmatched by seemingly mundane tasks. That is as far as I got. WebRobert Benchley. He identifies no new sources for his biography and asks no new questions of the old ones. The work of Robert Benchley is as funny as it was 80 years ago. The Lampoon primarily used the latter style, which suited Benchley. Word of it was published in Time by Alexander Woollcott, who was at a lunch with Benchley, Parker, and others. (Landing the position Please advise, was humorist Robert Benchleys famous telegram to the New Yorker magazine after arriving in Venice. His legacy includes written work and numerous short film appearances. The Robert Benchley Society. But there was a vibe there we really liked. . It was a joke about the canals, but in winter its frequently true as is well known by visitors wading through Piazza San Marco and other flooded sites. The resulting film, How to Sleep, was filmed in two days, and featured Benchley as both the narrator and sleeper, the latter a role Benchley claimed was "not much of a strain, as [he] was in bed most of the time. New and Upcoming Science Fiction and Fantasy, (June 6, 1914 - November 21, 1945) (his death), The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming (1966), View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. Rob Benchley was raised in Connecticut and, as a boy, maybe he was one of the entitled ones. He fit the profile. Benchley is best remembered for his contributions to The New Yorker, where his essays, whether topical or absurdist, influenced many modern humorists. [15], Robert grew up and attended South High School in Worcester and was involved in academic and traveling theatrical productions during high school. "[78] Outsider filmmaker Sidney N. Laverents lists Benchley as an influence as well,[79] and James Thurber used Benchley as a reference point, citing Benchley's penchant for presenting "the commonplace as remarkable" in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Benchley and Parker soon held down one corner of the Algonquin Round Table, that collection of wits whose quips are still repeated. [29], This freelancing attempt did not start out well, with Benchley selling just one piece to Vanity Fair and accumulating countless rejections in two months. As Life would say following his eventual resignation in 1929, "Mr. Benchley has left Dramatic Criticism for the Talking Movies". [53], During the time that Benchley was filming various short films, he also began working at The New Yorker, which had started in February 1925 under the control of Benchley's friend Harold Ross. [50], Things changed again for Benchley a number of years into the arrangement. prompted producer Sam H. Harris to request Benchley to perform it as part of Berlin's Music Box Revue. [56], Benchley returned to the cinema in 1937, cast in the revue Broadway Melody of 1938, and in his largest role to that point, the critically-panned Live, Love and Learn. He admitted to occasional borrowing of a Benchley topic for his own reflection and writings. Below is sunset over Nantucket as seen from Rob and Carols front yard Im sure Rob has better sunset photos than this, but this ones mine. Benchley's humor inspired a number of later humorists and filmmakers. Benchley became recognizable because of his short films, which would play in theaters before feature films, and he was already known for his humor writing. While the two styles were, at first glance, diametrically opposed, they coexisted in magazines such as Vanity Fair and Life. Also, Benchley appeared as himself in Walt Disney's behind the scenes film, The Reluctant Dragon (1941). His family opted for a private funeral service, and his body was cremated and interred in a family plot on the island of Nantucket.Altman, 352362. During his first two years at Harvard, Benchley worked with the Harvard Advocate and the Harvard Lampoon. Jeff Chu, "10 Questions for Dave Barry." The guy said, In five hundred years, this will all be gone.'. Rob Benchley was raised in Connecticut and, as a boy, maybe he was one of the entitled ones. He fit the profile. Artists Association of Nantucket The Writer: Dave Barry. writer of whimsical musings on the vagaries of modern life. Benchley re-entered Hollywood at the height of the Great Depression and the large-scale introduction of the talkie films he had begun working with years before. ", then standing by her side at the age of nine. (the name being a pun of the European revue Le Chauve-Souris), "An Anonymous Entertainment by the Vicious Circle of the Hotel Algonquin." Benchley was the protagonist in everything he wrote. From Toronto Leacock closely followed the increasing body of Benchley's published humor and wit, and opened correspondence between them. His re-entry into public speaking followed the annual HarvardYale football game in 1914, where he presented a practical joke involving "Professor Soong" giving a question-and-answer session on football in Chinese. The Washington Post, February 18, 2003. [39] Benchley's work was typically published twice a month. "[25] Things did not improve for Benchley and Obiter Dicta, and a failed practical joke at a company banquet further strained the relationship between Benchley and his superiors. Though Mr. Altman recounts all the stories, he hardly ever tries to sort out fact from fiction. Benchley took this offer to Vanity Fair to see if they could match it, as he felt Vanity Fair was the better magazine, and Vanity Fair offered him the position of managing editor. "[77] Horace Digby claimed that, "[M]ore than anyone else, Robert Benchley influenced [his] early writing style. Lillian Duryea, the bereaved, wealthy yeast heiress and fiancee of Edmund, undertook the funding of Robert's education; she made him a loan which, after he began to make money, she later called due. Benchley died of complications from cirrhosis of the liver in 1945 at the age of 56. Robert Benchleys income source is mostly from being a successful Actor. He told me about some famous scientist who spent some time studying Nantucket a few years ago. While his skills as an orator were already known by classmates and friends, it was not until his work at the Lampoon that his style formed. Rob Benchley met his wife Carol at a Fourth of July party thrown in a Codfish Park house that has since washed out to sea. WebRobert Benchley Treasurer Director Thomas Chalmers (uncredited) Writer Robert Benchley (uncredited) All cast & crew Production, box office & more at IMDbPro Storyline Edit A club's formal dinner has been completed, and there is a pause in the entertainment so that the assistant treasurer can give the report of the club's finances for the year. It was not hard to imagine, standing on the bluffs, seeing how far the ocean had already come. He wrote brilliantly and hilariously for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair, won an Oscar and, by all accounts, acquitted himself with distinction at the Algonquin in New York. Owing to an academic failure in his senior year due to an illness,[17] Benchley would not receive his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard until the completion of his credits in 1913. WebRobert Benchley was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. Did he and Charles MacArthur really set Theodore Roosevelt's son's pants on fire while engaging him ''in a lengthy conversation concerning military protocol''? From his beginnings at The Harvard Lampoon while attending Harvard University, through his many years writing essays and articles for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker and his acclaimed short films, Benchley's style of humor brought him respect and success during his life, from his peers at the Algonquin Round Table in New York City to contemporaries in the burgeoning film industry. While Benchley's pieces were bought by Vanity Fair from time to time, his consistent work dried up, and he took a position with the New York Tribune. [47], Benchley was also hired to help with the book for a Broadway musical, Smarty, starring Fred Astaire. 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